Die Welt

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No. 25. Vienna, 19th June 1903 — 24th Sivan 5663. 7th Year

Harbingers!

W. If we Zionists did not know when the Congress is to take place, there would be a simple means of finding out. We should only have to read certain Jewish newspapers, and we should know at once whether it was already near or not. Before every Congress there appears in them a quantity of edifying matter, all of it aimed at informing the believing reader most minutely of the senseless plans, or else of the faults and omissions, of the wicked Zionists. Nor is there any lack, here and there, of good advice. In short, one perceives at once that a part of the Jewish press is preluding coming events which are not to its liking, and whose importance is in some fashion to be belittled, or at least called into question.

Naturally there will be no lack of such reflections this time either. The soaring fancy of certain writers of articles is already beating its wings strenuously to reach those loftiest heights from which Zionism and the Congress are to appear minutely small; but — so far this forcibly laboured fancy seems to possess not the pinions of an eagle but very meagre duck's wings. What has been offered hitherto is truly not worth refuting. To be sure, we have still two months until the Congress. By then these worthy people will have acquired a little routine, and many a duck will really give the unskilled and naive reader the impression that he has before him a veritable eagle, or at the very least a vulture.

These harbingers of the Congress, no longer new to us and seldom in any way interesting, are worth mentioning only in order to draw our fellow Zionists' attention to them once again. Far more important are the harbingers from the Zionist side which announce the approaching Congress.

Above all, let us refer once more to the wording of the announcement published in the last number of "Die Welt." It reads:

"The Actions Committee is fully conscious of the high gravity of the situation and of the greatness of its task, as of its responsibility. Having been occupied in unresting activity with the realisation of our programme, it will come before the Congress with proposals. These proposals will be laid open to discussion at Basle."

It would weaken this pronouncement to attempt any comment upon it. Although nothing more precise can be said about it here at this hour, there are other matters which may well be brought forward.

It is said, and not without reason, that the Sixth Congress will probably rank among the most momentous that we Zionists have experienced. The very fact that this Congress is to give one of the most important Zionist institutions, the National Fund, its legal norms by settling a statute, means that a beginning is being made towards the solution of one of the most difficult tasks that Zionism has taken upon itself at all. Far too little, even in Zionist circles, has the significance of this institution hitherto been appreciated. It would be a mistake to see in the National Fund, as is done in some quarters, merely a kind of relief fund. It is much more. It is the means which the Jewish people creates for itself in order to attain thereby the highest thing a people can attain at all: its own soil, upon which it may live for itself and for its ideals. And truly, our people has such ideals, and, in spite of all the calumnies heaped upon it, ideals of such sublime beauty and such deep morality that they are worth the utmost exertions. Therefore this means, the National Fund, must also be given the most searching attention, and the session of the National Fund Commission, which begins in Vienna on the 19th of June, will be of the greatest importance for Zionism and for the Congress.

That it is also a matter of enabling our people's bank, the Jewish Colonial Trust, to extend its activity, is clear. Our fellow Zionists will assuredly have to devote their energies in increased measure to this institution as well, if the many wishes and hopes attached to this bank are to be brought nearer to realisation. Then, and only then, may we expect that the Congress will be afforded the opportunity of giving, in the affairs of the Bank too, many an important suggestion, which will be carried out by its General Meeting.